pecially on loam soils of good structureand water-holding capacity.

These tests bear out the contention thatwater should be used to keep the grassalive, and used to make turf lush andgreen. Grasses of the permanent peren-nial type like Bermuda, bluegrass, rescueand bent can and do withstand some wilt-ing without loss of turf, provided the rootsystem is deep enough to tap moisture inthe deeper soil. When loss occurs theroots are near the top. Then grass diesfrom too much or too little water, and isvery sensitive to - and sometimes severe-ly and permanently damaged by - herbi-cides such as 2,4-D, 2,4,5-T, etc., and maybe badly injur.ed by sodium arsenite whichis otherwise safe when used at moderaterates.

Poa annua is hard to hold because ofits shallow root system. Roots are alwaysnear the top so it is necessary to keepthe surface soil moist at all times. In badweather several hours of neglect may bethe difference between keeping and losingit. That is why light syringing with wateris imperative in the heat of the day dur-ing bad spells of weather.

In places where poa annua is the solegrass in the ground cover, bare soil is leftwhen it dies. But where the ground coveris a mixture of poa annua and a perma-nent grass, there is some cover when thepoa annua is lost.

Instead of abruptly stopping the use ofall water on fairways to curb poa annuathe more logical procedure would be to doit gradually and take steps to introducea more desirable cover of permanentgrasses. Both schemes work but the firstputs the course in bad shape for play forseveral seasons.

The investigations being conducted byDr. Hagen at Davis and by other workersat State College, Pa.; at Rutgers, N. J.;at. Beltsville and elsewhere are sure toprovide valuable information. They em-phasize the well known fact that waterusage is one of the most important' fac-tors in golf turf maintenance. No setrule for watering applies everywhere. Thesecret of success is to adapt the' basicprinciples to local conditions of climate,soil and kind of grass.

Top: This soil sampling tube will take samples to6 ft. depth.

Middle: The soil sampler reaches 6 ft. in givingHagen data on his research.

Bottom: Dr. Bob Hagen and student assistant incharge of the plots at Davis examine a plot ofMerion bluegrass that has roots 3 ft. deep. This

plot has been watered but once.

February, 1953

PGA'National's New ShopThe new shop addition at the PGA

National course presents a good exampleof the sort of a shop that permits exten-sive display even .J;)lOughit's not large.There is a lot of- wall space making. itpossible to show many manufacturers'lines.

Displays are frequently changed.Information service to PGA pros and

their guests is very well organized so thepros get the kind of attention they wantto see guests get at their own clubs.

At the counter end of the shop (above)Emil Beck, chmn. of the PGA National

"- .•..--GC Com. is at the left, with Art Clarkof the teaching staff in the center andHugh Bancroft at the right.

A picture window through which thefirst tee is seen is at the other end of theshop (below). Apparel gets prominentdisplay and sells very well to pros get-ting an early line of the season's styles.Joe Zavodny, shop mgr., is at the left,going over one of the new items with"Sandusky Bill" Gordon.

Jim Duncan also is on the teaching staffand Joe MacMorran is starter.

-Fulmer & Cole phofos

Woes of Men and WeatherBy SHERWOOD A. MOORE

Supt., Hollywood Golf ClubDeal, N. J.

My first reaction to the question "Whatdo you think is the most important prob-lem that faces golf course maintenance?"was and still is the labor situation. Theshortage of labor has come to the pointnow where you do not look for good hardworking men - you just look for any-body. And you hire them, hoping theywill fit into your program and will workout well. If not, they are weeded outand you hope someone else will turn upnext week.

A few years ago eight to ten menwould come around each Spring lookingfor work, but not true today. This SpringI had one man looking for work and heis 72 years old.

Like most of the other courses in NewJersey we have had to resort to highschool and college boys. That works outfine during the few summer months butthen in the Spring and Fall, when youhave just as much if not more work todo, you are down to a skeleton crew andsomething has to be neglected. Thislabor situation is becoming more andmore serious every year and unless wedo something about it we are going tofind ourselves with more and more workand fewer and fewer men. You can haveall of the power-driven equipment in theworld but unless you have someone tooperate it, it is of no use.

The comparatively low rate of pay andseasonal work offered by golf courses justdoes not have any appeal to a person whohas to pay 19 cents for a loaf of bread.How can we help overcome this problem?By offering a decent living wage, pleas-ant working conditions, and above all toguarantee year-round work. We may not

, be able to compete with military estab-lishments or industrial wages but if wecan offer a man the security of a year-round pay check it would go a long wayin acquiring a good and honest crew.Those courses that seem to have the leastlabor problems are those that retain acrew, or at least a nucleus of a crew, 12months of the year. If you can have atleast three-fourths of your crew to fallback on all year around and then hireyour summer help from the young schoolfellows you are in much better shape thandepending almost entirely on seasonalworkers. Over the years your golf coursewill show the results of this plan -there is nothing like having experiencedor regular men on your payroll. Thus to

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me, the most important problem on a golfcourse is labor.

Always A Summer TougherIn regard to the problems on turf in

our area, this past season there have beenplenty. And the main cause for all theseheadaches, heartaches, grey hairs andworrying frowns has been the weather.Whenever we go through a bad seasonlike 1949 we think that we have seen theworst, but then there is always anothersummer to come rolling around that is alittle tougher. Such has been the sum-mer of 1952 and from all reports it hasbeen unfavorable to courses all over thenation. We had a very cool and wetSpring with grass responding very poor-ly, especially the root development. Thenin June we immediately jumped into sum-mer with temperatures soaring to 90° andabove. July was hot and humid with 17days having temperatures of 90 or aboveand then 13 of those days were in suc-cession. August was somewhat cooler butwet. We seemed to have the extremesthis season and golf courses suffered like-wise. Some had an immense amount oftrouble while others seemed to hold onand come through.

On many courses sections or wholegreens passed out of the picture andthere were very few of the boys who didnot have trouble of some kind on theircourse during the summer. It was alsoa beautiful year for diseases (the pa-thologist was in his glory) and requireddiligent watching and regular spraying offungicides. And what a banner year ofcrabgrass! Poa annua disappeared andthe turf grasses weakened so all old mancrabgrass had to do was germinate. Thusthis just added insult to injury and madethe superintendent stoop a little lowerunder all of his problems.

Reducing the TroubleThose courses that had the least

amount of trouble during this severe sea-son were those that watched their fer-tilization carefully; watered even morecarefully; applied fungicide when needed;tubular-tined dry spots, or even aerifiedsections or whole greens; and in generalkept a careful watch over all maintenancepractices. During June, July and Augustwe fertilized every two or three weeksbut only in small amounts.

Hand watering on many courses wasthe only solution in keeping greens frompassing out. Even though we had heavy

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r

rains of 2 or 3 inches in a few days thegrass would wilt, due to drying windsand short root development, and requiredlight watering although there was plentyof moisture in the soil. We applied fungi-cide as often as twice in one week andthen again went three weeks withoutapplying any. For a while during thesummer we spiked our greens weeklyand then even had to go out and tubular-tine the knolls and aerify the edges tokeep them from drying out.

The fairways also suffered considerablethroughout our area this summer. Thosewho had good grasses in their fairwaysand could water them fared the best. Ourtees, along with those on many othercourses, took a beating this season dueto the play and weather. We are now inthe process of renova ting them to getthem in shape for next summer. Let'shope that it will not be "one of the worstsummers you have ever experienced."

Sports Pages Telling CourseMaintenance Story

Golf course condition and maintenanceoperations have been getting good spaceas live sports page news during the pasttwo years. Sports editors and writershave recognized that course supts. havestones of interest and information to allgolfers.

Supts. also have been getting featurepublicity on garden pages in recent yearsand are in heavy demand for spring lec-tures at garden clubs on lawn care.

An example of how interviewing acourse supt. -brings out a sports page fea-ture appeared in the Greensboro (NC)Record where sportswriter Adrian Bro-deur wrote:

Ever wonder how much work and ex-actly what procedure is followed in mak-ing a new golf green? Take it from A. D.Edwards, Green Valley Golf Club super-intendent, it's plenty of work and there'sa hard pattern to follow.

Green Valley, newest course in the GateCity, will S0011 JOin the ranks of the city'sother four when it officially becomes an18··hole course in Spring. Work startedmonths ago on an additional nine holesand work was just completed a few daysago on the planning and seeding of greengrass.

Green Valley's new nine greens will bethe city's biggest greens. This claim wasmade by Edwards who said they wouldalmost double the size of the present ninegreens at Gr:eenValley.

"I doubt very much if a golfer will everget the same putt to a cup twice in oneyear," Edwards said.

"We are going to have a lot of cup

February, 1953

space on these new greens and every inchof the new green will be available forcupping."

That's quite a claim since many greenshave large areas, because of rolls andpitches in the greens, where cupping isimpossible. But while the new Green Val-ley greens will include pitches and rolls,they will still be suitable for cuppingpurposes.

After plans for the size of the greenswere formulated in the Starmount offices,Edwards and his crew went to work pre-paring the greens for next Spring's play.Seven of the new nine greens will be atexture of the fine Hall's Bermudagrass.The other two will be a combination ofthe Hall"s grass and Tift bermuda, animported fine grass from Florida.

Source of the expensive Hall's bermudacame right from Green Valley. Last yearEdwards made a huge new practice greenout of the famous Hall grass. In the past12 days he has taken out 51,000 2-in.plugs out of the practice greens.

Using a special tool, made by WestPoint Products Corp., which cuts a per-fectly round 2-in. plug, Edwards and hiscrew of eight dug up the 51,000 Hallplugs and then dug up 51,000 more plugsof topsoil on the greens where the Hallplugs were to be placed. The plugs wereplaced in the holes 6 in. apart over. theentire surface of the greens. Within afew weeks time the new greens will becovered, not thick but covered, withstringers from these plugs.

Hall's bermuda doesn't have a seed. Ithas to be transplanted and that is a tre-mendous task. Eight men and boys aidedin the vast job of digging the plugs andplug holes. \

The reason for two of the greens tocontain a mixture of Hall's bermuda andthe Tift 'type is of an experimental nature.If it is successful golfers will have two ofthe finest greens in the city. While Hall'sbermuda is fine in itself, the combinationof these two grasses should provide aneven finer putting surface.

_Cotton Writes Helpfullyin "My Swing"

Henry Cotton, one of the world's great-est students of golf playing technique aswell as playing star and a clear writerhas written 'My Swing" which is pub-lished by Country Life, Ltd., 2-10 Tavi-stock st., London, WC2, Eng. It sells for$4. ,

It·s a most informative combination ofpicture and text analysis and instructionand is certain to have interested and ex-tensive reading in the U.S. as well as inBritain. Cotton brings a keen freshnessinto golf shot-making analysis.

45

Late Winter

TERSAN® SPISNOW· MOl

"I keep ahead of snow mold by spraying with'Tersan' early in the spring as well as late infall," says Frank H. Dunlap, course superin-tendent at Country Club, Chagrin Falls: Ohio."Snow mold has been a serious problem in thepast. But since I started using 'Tersan' fiveyears ago, there haven't been two dozen spotsof snow mold on our twenty greens."Control of brown patch is also excellent with'Tersan.' I am vparticularly pleased because'Tersan' does not check the grass."

For ten years, "Tersan" turf fungicide sprays have prevented snow mold,dollar spot and brown patch at Exmoor Country Club, near Chicago. "Dis-ease has been kept at a minimum," says course superintendent WilliamStupple. "And 'Tersan' doesn't burn or take out grass color ... in fact,doesn't injure the grass in any way."

Handy "Tersan" 75 in 3-lb. packages is ideal for snow mold applications.Saves measuring from bulk, speeds handling, stays in suspension for more

Course Supt. F. H. Dunlap

(This is another in a series of "experience reports" from well-known golf courses, coast to coast.)

t4'Early Spring

~!\YSASSURE~ CONTROL~I

1

'J

srSpraying "Tersan" at Exmoor Country Club,near Chicago

even application, Use "Tersan"75 to keep your greens in top.shape for spring."Tsrsan" is a registered trademark of E. I. duPont de Nemours& Co, (Inc.)

Ji.1 Use "Tersan" on greens, tees, around bunkersand other grass areas where snow mold attacks

=)

~ BETTER THINGS FOR BETTER LIVING ••• THROUGH CHEMISTRY

Exmoor Country Club

On all chemicals always follow directions for appli-cation. Where warning or caution statements onuse of the product are given, read them carefully.

Tells Golf Salesmen WhatPro's Problems Are

By PAT MARKOVICHProfessional. Richmond (Calif.) Country Club.

An article .by Dan Ellis advising prosto "take it easy on salesmen" was onethat made me reflect on my own relationsas a pro with salesmen. I appreciate thesalesman's position that Ellis describesfrom his own observation and probablyhis experience.

So to further understanding betweensalesmen, their sales managers and pro-fessionals, I'd like to set forth my ownobservations and thoughts. We all hadbetter understand each other's positionsbecause we all share the desire to in-crease volume and profits and reduceselling costs and keep our prices to theultimate buyer as low as possible.

I must admit I probably have been asguilty as Pro Joe Blow. The pros mustfind a pleasant "out", still treat everysalesman as a human being. As Pro JoeBlow mentioned, he has been in the habitof giving every salesman an order, andat the same time tried to take advantageof the 2% discount each month. He isnot alone in his thoughts.

Using my shop and experience alongwith many of my neighboring profession-als, I have drawn the following conclu-sion . . . in order to stay in business andshow a: fair return, one must act the partof a business man. My clientele and mypromotional work directs me to handlecertain lines.

In the "last six years the average pro-fessional improved on his business abilityand is still learning each day. Presenttax conditions now compel volume in or-der to make a livelihood. This has madethe professional take heed.

In years gone by the term "Pro Shop"was applied to the professional's head-quarters. Most still have this habit. Theword "shop" carries as one of its defini-tions, "place where mechanics carryon atrade." It is a long time since clubs weremade in our shops. It is now a "prostore" where the merchandise is selectedto fill the demand, and in the majority ofcases the equipment is specially manufac-tured for the golfers.

Salesmen are increasing in number, andthat is only part of the problem; manyrepresent several firms. Naturally theyexpect orders; and it is not uncommon topurchase six items, and have six differentinvoices representing the name numberof companies. Each calls for an indi-

48

vidual check and mailing, thus creatingan added expense and confusion.

In 1948 I did business with 48 firms.In 1951 it had jumped to 72. To be a goodfellow I found that I not only had to hireextra help, but at inventory time manydead items appeared on my shelves, shop-worn and depreciated in value. Selling inorder to obtain your cost, as well asclearing your shelves means also losinga profitable potential customer.

I have always felt and argued that thepro shop has been a display counter forthe manufacturers. Changing names andmodels has been done without the con-sideration of the home professional. Tal-ented salesmen are hired to cover theprofessional. As mentioned, I was a softtouch. So much so that at one time Icarried 30 different makes and models ofirons and the same number of' woodsrepresenting 14 golf club manufacturers.Now I only have six, and am doing asmuch business with less confusion andresulting in a greater profit.

Shoes and sport clothing is relatively anew venture for the professional, and weare experiencing the same problems. Ijust do not know what to feature, there-fore I am buying everything that looksgood. "Good Guy" professionals are be-ing overstocked by energetic salesmen.

It is probably true that salesmen doget information ~n possible pro vacancies,and that many of the assistants havebeen able to follow up the lead, but yourclubs are turning more and more toothers for recommendations.

Possibly I should end -this article bygiving advice to the salesmen and com-panies who are probably "pushing" theirmen and expecting a sale for every call.The majority of the orders by profes-sionals are either mailed or called in tothe local distributor. The only person whoactually is in a position to know hispotential is the professional. He has alimited clientele and his sales and pur-chases must be judged accordingly.

Again using my own experience, wemust feature some name brand. In 1945and 1946 one leading brand of clubs weremy top sellers with another's woods run-ning a close second. Prior to 1945 itwas products of differ.ent makers. In 1947,1948 and 1949 it wa.s still another mak-er's goods by a. wide margin. In 1950 and

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1951 and now in 1952 I featured anotherline. Time is approaching when anotherchange has to be made.

Customers Are BossesIn a period of three years with as good

selling as can be done without scaringthe customers with high pressure I knowthat I saturate my market to the point ofdiminishing returns. I would like to con-tinue to feature the clubs I have beenpushing. They are very good or I'd neverhave bought and presented them in thefirst place. I like the salesmen and I likethe companies. We all have got alongvery well together. But my members whohaven't bought these lines for reasonsthat I certainly haven't been able to blastby steady, diplomatic and close-up sales-manship are not going to buy just be-cause the salesman and his company andI like each other.

I think I know, and apply in selling,the value of a manufacturer's name ofvery high repute and try my level best to

concentrate the manufacturer's nationaladvertising effectively at my point. of sale.It works for two or three years in thecase of each first class manufacturer,then to make sure that my members areallowed their "say" in my shop opera-tions (and they'd got to have if I'm goingto stay and make a profit) I give the oth-er fellows a chance. .

When the salesman learns that I'm notwedded to the line until death do we part,he doesn't need to be sore at me. Mycustomers control my actions and it's nogreat secret that they are independentof manufacturers and of me. The manu-facturers and I have to keep wooingthem and it's life not to have the courseof true love run smooth.

I can appreciate the golf salesman'soptimistic hope. I, too, wish that all whocome to my club bought something fromme. But they don't, and I just have tokeep after them, knowing that some dayif I keep on the job, thinking and pleasant

CLASS IN CAPPS' SHOP AT DESERT INNWhen Howard Capps left PGA Tournament Bureau management to become pro at Wilbur

Clark's de luxe Desert Inn CC, Las Vegas, N. M., he brought with him ideas for pro shop arrange-ment and fitting he'd picked up at clubs all along the tournament circuit. Here's one view of theneat and colorful shop. No opportunity for appealing display of golf merchandise is overlookedanywhere in the shop. Capps has with him at Desert Inn George Bruno as teaching asst •• DougGrochow, shop mgr.; Milton Ross, tournament mgr. and starter; Spencer Trask as teaching asst. and

starter and Ed Wardell as business mgr.

and eager to serve, I'll get them. I comeback to the good companies in turn, head-lining the merchandise of each and car-rying enough stock of all leading brandsso I won't be missing any bets. I figureif I keep trying to do the right thingeventually all my possible customers willbuy from me.

But I can't get it all at one time, allthe time, and I'm not going to tie upmy money and display space in some-thing that isn't in enough demand bymy members to move fast. So I'm prettymuch reconciled to having to work stead-ily and have some disappointments andsuffer some losses of time and money I'vedevoted to selling. If any good golf sales-man can tell, me how I can escape thesetroubles I'd sure like to listen to him.

What has improved pros' credit ratingwith manufacturers is that the pros havebeen attending more to being good busi-nessmen than to being good fellows, andthat's something no salesman's companyis going to complain about.

Course Shortage CrampingGolf Around Salt Lake

. By· ALMA R. EMERYSupt., Forest Dale GC, Salt Lake City, Utah

Here in the Salt Lake district there isa definite need for more public golfcourses. In this area many have givenup the game and gone elsewhere forrecreation because of over-crowded con-ditions. It is true the reservation systemis used but many refuse to fight the line-up, even for golf.

In Salt Lake there are three, 9-hole,city-owned courses for public use. Thesecourses range in age from 20 to 40 years;same greens, same tees, etc.

Changes of Administration bring newfaces, new superviscrs, making it impos-sible to bring about necessary long-timeplanning to revise, reconstruct, and re-model our golf layouts. Salaries paid arenot attractive enough to obtain and holdthe type of men required for such im-portant work.

The development of new equipment hasplayed a great part in saving many oldgolf courses from complete loss. Chemi-cals developed for use in preventing lossof greens and fairways by grub worms,brown patch, and snow mold, etc., havebeen one of our greatest benefits. '

Our county has recently built an 18-hole course now being used, which hashelped, but little, to alleviate heavy traf-fic. Blueprints have been made, andplans were well along to build an 18-hole

50

public course in this area to be called"Falcon Golf and Country ClUb." Thepublic wishes the builders a most speedysuccess. It will be open to the' public, butprivately owned. I have been asked tohelp with its construction and mainte-nance

The Magna course, owned by KennecottCopper Co., is operating 12 miles fromSalt Lake. This course will be one ofthe west's finest layouts in a matter oftwo or three years. They are rebuildinggreens, tees, and fairways. They pur-chased the latest modern equipment andgrass, such as B-27, C-I-Arlington, etc.

Golf Market Could Be20 Times .larger

By JOHNNY COCHRANProfessional, Greenwood (Miss.) CC

Now an important part of a pro's jobis creating more desire to play golfand promoting construction of additionalcourses to care for present and potentialplayers. If this work isn't done youngmen with excellent education now cominginto pro golf as tournament players andthe present professionals will find thereare a lot more pros than there are projobs available. ,

Population and income statistics indi-cate that the possible market for golf is20 times larger than the present numberof players. The game is losing someplayers because of lack of courses and ismissing chances to recruit many new onesbecause these possible' golfers haven'tbeen made aware of how much pleasuregolf will give them, and how to get play-ing the game. The pro is the. man to dothis essential educational job.

WHAT GOLFER MUST LEARNWhen the golfer becomes aware of whathe can and should do in considering thecondition of the course on which he playsmany of his complaints about conditionof the course and many of the superin-tendent's expensive troubles will end.

If the golfer would repair divots, getout of traps on the low side instead of onthe high side, stop practicing on the tees,tee up on the tees, lift his feet so hisspikes don't harrow the greens, put hisdebris in the waste baskets and rememberthat he owns and is paying for the course,course condition would be better and thecosts and troubles would be less.

-JOHN PRICESupt., Southern Hills ec, Tulsa, Okla.

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